Endangered species need elected officials as advocates

In 1973, Congress passed the Endangered Species Act to protect wildlife that inhabits the vast terrains of the United States. The act was enacted to ensure that ecosystems are conserved and to keep the species that reside in said ecosystems and are at risk of extinction safe.

On April 16, 2025, the Trump administration proposed a rule that would completely reformulate the protection for endangered animals within America. This ruling would fundamentally affect what it means to “harm” species. It would allow for the destruction of their habitats with no repercussions, essentially stating that the only way to “harm” the species is to intentionally and directly kill an animal.

Lila Seidman, a staff writer for the Los Angeles Times, writes in her article “Trump administration seeks to narrow Endangered Species Act by redefining harm,” “It fits with White House officials’ intent to spur economic growth by slashing regulations.”

This new ruling is being pushed by the current presidential administration to increase resource extraction and production on public lands. When digging into the harmful effects of deforestation and ecosystem destruction, these endangered species will no longer have an ecosystem in which to survive.

Seidman wrote about the Trump administration’s order on the expansion of timber production and how catastrophic it would be for wildlife.

“It was followed by an emergency declaration by U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins mandating the U.S. Forest Service to open up roughly 112.5 million acres of national forestland to logging,” Seidman said.

All of California’s national forests will be affected by this logging, and as a result, animals, such as the northern spotted owls that nest within the state’s trees, will be in danger of being wiped out.

The need for wood throughout the country should not overpower the need to protect endangered species. Wildlife deserves the same respect as people, and the government should not be prioritizing the expansion of material over the safety of endangered species.

This potential rule will overshadow past acts and rulings that were specifically put into place to conserve America’s ecosystems and the species that live within them. If the proposal and others like it continue to pass, more and more species will become endangered and ultimately extinct.

We as a country shouldn’t take advantage of the environment around us. When people abuse the environment, the wildlife are directly affected. The people in support of this new ruling fail to realize that even though endangered animals are not being killed directly, the actions of deforestation and other disturbances are just as harmful.

Endangered species deserve to be protected by the people in power in the U.S. citizens can try to contribute to preserving endangered wildlife and ecosystems, but elected officials have more power and jurisdiction over the land. They are the ones responsible for putting laws and rules in place to conserve the land people must continue to live for hopefully centuries to come.

This new ruling will wreak havoc on ecosystems, and the conservation of America's environment will continue to regress. The decimation of forests for human benefit that leads to animal endangerment must come to an end.